The Hearst Corporation

A Brief History

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Though associated with New York, William Randolph Hearst got his start in San Francisco. His father had won the San Francisco Examiner gambling, and Hearst became the paper’s publisher and devoted long hours and sweat to make it a success. It was also here that his papers took on a populist tone, crusading civic improvement and exposing municipal corruption.

He then moved to New York City and acquired the New York Journal. This began an epic publishing war of the dailies, pitting Hearst against Joseph Pulitzer and his New York World. This lead to “yellow journalism,” named after the comic strip “Yellow Kid” in Hearst’s journal. Pulitzer and Hearst printed senational stories, scandals and all around muckracking to generate sales. Their battle also fanned the flames of war, creating a popular environment for the Spanish-American War in 1898.

After winning the circulation battle, he expanded to other cities including Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. By the mid-1920s he had a nationwide string of 28 newspapers. He also diversified into book publishing and magazines, including Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar. He also started two news services still in use today, Universal News and International News Service. He also expanded into film with the King Features Syndicate.

The Hearst Corporation, like the rest of the country, took a big hit during the Great Depression. Some of his newspapers and the film company were shut down, though World War II did help restore his circulation and advertising revenues. It was enough to keep the company private when William Randolph Hearst died of a heart attack in 1951.

Today, his family is still involved in the ownership and management of the company. But from the humble begins of a single newspaper, the company today is an international corporation with global holdings in a wide variety of media.

Magazines

* Cosmopolitan
* Country Living
* Esquire
* Good Housekeeping
* Harper’s Bazaar
* Marie Claire
* O, The Oprah Magazine
* Popular Mechanics
* Redbook
* Seventeen
* Town & Country
* Veranda

Newspapers

* Albany Times Union
* Beaumont Enterprise
* Houston Chronicle
* Jasper Newsboy
* Laredo Morning Times
* Midland Daily News
* San Francisco Chronicle
* Seattle Post-Intelligencer
* San Antonio Express-News

Television and Cable

* A&E Television Networks (Shared with Disney and NBC Universal)
* ESPN (owns 20%; shared with Disney, which owns the other 80%)
* Hearst-Argyle Television (owner of 26 local television stations)
* Lifetime Television (joint venture with The Walt Disney Company)